A blog discussing the forms and fashion of fencing in the Victorian Age

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Victorian Singlesticks

Singlestick,
a popular form of fencing in the 18th and 19th century,
has a varied background and loose definition. To the English and Americans of
the period, just about any form of stick fighting was referred to as
singlestick. The history of singlestick has various roots, as well. We’ll first
explore the English progress of singlestick through backsword and cudgeling.
Part two will cover singlestick of the Victorian era and its relationship to
the French La Canne.

Part 1 - Backsword and Cudgeling

From Walker's "Defensive Exercises"

Why is it even called Singlestick?

In some cases
stick fighting involved two sticks. The
London Year book of Daily Recreation and Information from 1832 gives this
definition:

“Single-stick
playing is so called to distinguish it from cudgeling, in which two sticks are
used: the single-stick player having the left hand tied down, and using only
one stick to defend himself and strike his antagonist. In cudgeling, as the
name implies, the weapon is a stout cudgel, and the player defends himself with
another having a large hemisphere of wicker-work upon it.”

The English
Dialect Dictionary of 1898 also describes a type of backswording that included
two sticks

“Two sticks
were used, one as a guard, the other an offensive weapon, with baskets or
without.”

A nice
explanation, but of course no one seemed to adhere to this definition when
referring to singlestick. Singlestick, backsword, and cudgeling all have
different meanings, but were often used interchangeably.

Background of
Backswording

The basis of
English singlestick comes from the use of the backsword. The backsword was
originally a single- edged weapon used in prize-fights, but later came to refer
to singlestick and cudgeling.

Definition

A definition
of the backsword comes from the Century
Dictionary and Encyclopedia of 1897 published in New York:

Back-sword
(bak’sord), n 1. A sword with one sharp edge. Used for cutting rather than
thrusting, sometimes curved, and frequently straight. It usually has a
basket-hilt, and was the common weapon of citizens and country people when the
rapier and afterward the small-sword were worn by gentlemen.

2. A cudgel
fitted with a basket-hilt, used for a particular kind of single-stick play.

3. A
cudgel-play in which the back-sword (in sense 2) is used, peculiar to certain
counties of England, and still kept up at festivals and the like in the attempt
to preserve old customs. The guard is with the left arm, and the object of each
player is to break the skin of his adversary’s forehead so as to draw blood.

This style of
singlestick was also present in colonial America. The 1908 reprints of The Youth’s Companion in a multi-volume
collection on American History tells us that “The game of cudgeling was
something like short-stick fencing, the object being to give resounding raps
upon the antagonists head. After a series of cautious movements, the players
would warm up to their work and deliver rattling blows with great rapidity,
each good hit being rewarded by the vociferous applause of the onlookers
gathered in a compact ring about them. A beaver hat of the old-fashioned cocked
style is brought forward as the prize of the victorious cudgeler. A good beaver
hat was a costly article in those days, worth as much as fifteen dollars.”

American Colonial Youths at Singlestick

Sporting Magazine published an account of a Singlestick match at Trowbridge in1809, with an engraving of two "gamesters". It says of backsword or singlestick that it "is a game of high antiquity, and the most warlike extant. When the fate of nations was principally decided in battle by the sword, it was the policy of our ancestors to render its use familiar to the bulk of the population, hence arose the courtly tournament, and the plebeian exhibitions at wakes and festivals of courage and skill, in sword and dagger, sword and potlid, cudgels, backsword, &c. &c. the prizes for which still remain annually given in many parts." Potlid seems to refer to the guard or "pot" of a singlestick.

Somersetshire Gamesters from the 1809 Sporting Magazine

English National
Pride

In 1886 Walter Pollock published an article on the
Backsword and Cudgel in the April issue of the Saturday Review. He says that, though waning now, the prowess of
Englishmen with the backsword had long been an object of national pride.
Broadsword and singlestick were more congenial to the English spirit because of
“the qualities it requires of its devotees, strength of hand, hardihood and
determination.” This is in contrast to “the nimbleness, elegance, and
highly-cultivated cunning of the foreign play.”

James Figg

Pollock presents the most famous backswordsman of the
time in James Figg. He blames Figg’s genius for fighting as a cause for the
decline of the backsword as a gladiatorial weapon in stage fights and
prize-fighting. Figg became famous for his bare-fist boxing, and the backsword
was slowly driven out of fashion. It resurfaced in the rural districts of
England as cudgeling, using stout sticks rather than blades, and played for
prizes at county feasts or fairs.

Transitioning
from “sharps” to “sticks”

In this transition from “sharps” to “sticks”, Pollock
notes why the head is target. “The
evolution of the game, extraordinary as it may seem, is easy enough to follow
if we start from the fact that a cudgelling match, for love or for stake, was
at first mostly conducted on the lines of those glorious contests on the London
stage. Now the only decisive sign of defeat in a bout with sharps was the
appearance of blood on any part of the body; with cudgels, however, or
singlesticks it was found difficult, if not impossible, to draw blood, except
for the head. Hence the infliction of a bloody – technically a “broken” – head
on the adversary was the main object of the match, and consequently most of the
blows were aimed at that part.”

Pollock also explains the use of the arm. “Another point
to keep sight of is this; although it would have been very unsound fencing to
attempt to stop a sword-cut with hand or arm – after the manner, for instance,
practiced in ancient foil play – with cudgels, as the chief care of the player
was to guard his head and crack his adversary’s, he very soon realized the
advantages of stopping a blow with his arm, in the hope of effecting a
successful counter at the same moment.”

From Walker's "Defensive Exercises"

This, however, often turned the fight in to a wrestling
match as players would seize their opponent’s stick with the unarmed hand. This
was corrected by making a rule that “although the arm might be used for
parrying, the position of the hand should be fixed by grasping the belt.
Finally, the belt or handkerchief was passed under the thigh and tied in a loop
of such length that, when it was firmly grasped with the left hand, the elbow
could be raised as high as the crown.” This allowed the left arm to block
blows.

Equipment

Not much was written on singlestick during this period,
since most of its purveyors were likely uneducated. Probably the most
comprehensive was a piece by Donald Walker in his 1840 book Defensive Exercises. This book had a
chapter on the method for singlestick, along with fencing, broad sword,
wrestling, throwing, guns and rifles and other combat styles.

Walker states that “Basket-sticks, similar to those used
in broad-sword exercise, but rather heavier, are used for this exercise. Both
parties strip to the shirt. In some parts of the country, paddings are used to
save the arms, especially the elbows; but this is never done in London.”

Spalding Fencing Equipment 1915

Thomas Hughes, the author of the 1857 novel Tom Brown’s School Days, recalls the
weapon used in backswording of his youthful days.

“The weapon is a good stout ash-stick, with a large
basket handle, heavier and somewhat shorter than a common singlestick.

Alfred Hutton, the eminent Victorian fencer and scholar, suggests in the 1911 Encyclopaedia of Sport and Games Volume IV that, though not in general use, a sort of demi-mask was sometimes employed, covering the face up to the eyebrows and leaving the upper part of the head exposed.

Singlestick Demi-Mask as Described by Hutton

Singlestick Play – Method of Play

The match would start with a hand shake and a somewhat
perilous pronouncement of “God preserve our eyes!” Pollock notes that a single
bout could last an half an hour and more without a blood.

Pollock describes the conditions of a match in his
article. “Under such conditions there could be no question of lunging or
retiring, and consequently the adepts of this ungraceful art, when intent on
winning a stake or a new gold-laced hat by breaking a head, had to stand
squarely to each other and within close measure. Starting from a high hanging
guard, keeping their hands as high as possible, and covering the left side of
their head with their raised elbow, they belaboured each other with their
baskethilted cudgels until blood made its appearance, when the seconds would
stop the fight to see whether at least an inch of the crimson token of defeat
could be measured.”

Strategy

Pollock also gives some of the strategy. “Long practical
experience having proved how difficult it is to draw blood out of a man’s head
by a heavy round blow, the expert player’s chief aim was to find or create an
opportunity for a “nip” at the head or face which would tear the skin. He might
be content with trying to overcome his adversary by scientific traversing and
superior quickness of eye and hand, or he might attempt to compel him to lower
his guard or his elbow by merciless cuts on the ribs or shoulders. In the
latter case, however, he risked receiving the fatal flip himself should his
opponent have the fortitude to disregard all body-cuts, so as to be ready to
profit by the slightest opening.”

From Walker's "Defensive Exercises"

The 1911 Encyclopedia
Britannica also describes the action of singlestick play: “Under the first
and second Georges back-sword play with sticks was immensely popular under the
names “cudgel-play” and “singlesticking.” Not only in the cities but in the
country districts as well, wrestling being its only rival. Towards the end of
the 18th century the play became very restricted. The players were
placed near together, the feet remaining immovable and all strokes being
delivered with a whip-like action of the wrist from a high hanging guard, the
hand being held above the head. Blows on any part of the body above the waist
were allowed, but all except those aimed at the head were employed only to gain
openings, as each bout was decided only by a “broken head,” i.e. a cut on the
head that drew blood. At first the left hand and arm were used to ward off
blows not parried with the stick, but near the close of the 18th
century the left hand grasped a scarf tied loosely round the left thigh, the
elbow being raised to protect the face.”

The Old Guard

And in Tom Brown’s
School Days, Thomas Hughes gives a more appreciative description of the
action. “The players are called “old gamsters,” – why, I can’t tell you, - and
their object is to break one another’s heads. If good men are playing, the
quickness of the return is marvellous; you hear the rattle like that a boy
makes drawing his stick along pailings, only heavier, and the closeness of the
men in action to one another gives it a strange interest, and makes a spell at
backswording a very noble sight.”

From the December 1809 article in Sporting Magazine is a description of the rules.

That the
stage should not be less than sixteen feet square – the ring of ropes from
forty to fifty feet diameter.

The basket
sticks to be three feet two inches in length

The winner
of most heads to carry the prize

Should a
stick break, or fall out of the hand, and the adversary, not observing,
strike, and the blow so given draw, blood, the head, nevertheless, is not
to be allowed.

No head to
be allowed, except the blood runs an inch above the chin.

The umpire
to decide all the disputes.

The article continues on to outline the order of the matches, and concludes that the furnished prizes should consist of those usually given, such as a hat with gold or silver lace of from fifteen to thirty shillings value, or a purse of from twenty to fifty shillings.

Walker’s 1840 book Defensive
Exercises describes the method used for singlestick fighters.

“Most players prefer to stand with the right foot
forward; but some prefer the left. The body is held upright; the head,
backward; the leg, straight; the right arm, advanced and nearly straight; the
hand, opposite the forehead, but rather higher; the stick, slanting towards the
left shoulder. The left hand grasps a handkerchief, which is tied loosely round
the left thigh; and the left elbow is elevated and thrown forward, so as to
protect the head. The principal point of attack is the head; first blood from
it, or from the face or neck, above the level of the lower jaw, being decisive.
In the position already described, the head is thoroughly protected. It is,
therefore, necessary to get the adversary out of that position before attacking
his head. This may be attempted by attacking him under the arm, at the point of
the elbow, or on the ribs; or you may wait until he attacks you, and then try
to strike at his head before he can get back to guard. All the blows are to be
made from the wrist, the great art being to strike them as quickly as possible,
and return to the primary position, in which the head is thoroughly protected,
before the adversary can get at it.

The Guard from Walker's "Defensive Exercises"

Singlestick would evolve during the Victorian era to more
of a saber fencing style, and continue to refer to other styles such as the
French la canne, which shall be further investigated in part 2.

About the Victorian Fencing Society

The Victorian Fencing Society was formed in 2011 for the Research, Training and Demonstrations in the fashion of fencing from the nineteenth century.
We meet in the Dallas area for monthly practice in nineteenth century fencing techniques at the Fencing Institute of Texas. President and Instructor Jonathan Carr started fencing in 1984 and has been coaching fencing since 1997.
Our primary manuals of study come from the Fencing volume of the Badminton library published in 1889 by Walter H. Pollock, F.C. Grove and Camille Prevost, Foil and Sabre by Louis Rondelle published in 1892 in Boston, and Alfred Hutton’s treatise on Saber called Cold Steel published in 1889.
The society is open to all individuals interested in studying the history of fencing in the nineteenth century. No experience is necessary.
Please contact Jonathan Carr for any questions at the email listed in the contact info. Check out our facebook page for recent activity.